Öl für die Lampen Chinas

A lot of what you read about "Oil for the Lamps of China" focuses on the socialist, anti-big oil themes of the film's story. While this is a particularly fascinating aspect of the film, historically and philosophically, I can't help but feel the real crux of the story is much darker and more depressing. As a matter of fact, this is one of the most depressing films I've ever seen from the 1930's.

This movie tells the story of a man profoundly lacking in the slightest shred of dignity. A man who has no self-respect and allows himself to be abused and mistreated by the company he works for. He allows his very soul to be raped by this company. Why, the complete and total devotion he shows to this company surpasses the reasonable and enters the realm of psychosis.

This, to me, is why the movie is about more than just bashing the corporation and propping this guy up as some kind of hero through victimization. This man is no hero. He's pretty disgusting to me. He is complicit in many of the company's sins, as well as his own. He is the one who repeatedly chooses the company over his wife, his baby, his friends, his pride. This isn't some Steinbeck story about what a man will do to keep from starving. There is no indication Stephen Chase couldn't go back to the States and get another job. He refuses to do so. Refuses because he delusionally believes his job is a part of some greater calling and that there is some payoff at the end of all this. There could not be a reward to make it all worthwhile really. Any rational man or woman would know this. The film seems to say that it is Stephen's idealism that allows him to suffer and make others suffer. But I find that pretty hard to swallow. He doesn't just take it on the chin the whole time but he passes it on to those around him.

It's certainly a highly interesting character study, as well as all it has to say about corporations and business practices. But it's also pretty bleak and soul-crushing. The actors are all superb and the direction is fine. It's a film that gives you quite a bit to chew over but be prepared to not like the taste of everything you're chewing.

The length and sweep of many novels that are brought to the screen often give the film an episodic quality: too many incidents, too many characters, too little time to do justice to any of it.

Here is a picture that manages, for the most part, to avoid such pitfalls, and to tell a "big" story with skill and intensity. Like its excellent director, Mervyn LeRoy, it remains greatly underappreciated.

The theme of personal responsibility being compromised by business obligations is one that movies have not often handled, and certainly never more effectively than here. Character conflicts are dealt with in a mature, understated manner. The "company" is portrayed as an impersonal, largely uncaring force, oblivious to the needs and personal fulfillment of its employees.

One could object to the contrived manner in which Steve and Hester meet at the start, and quickly arrange a marriage of convenience. And surely Pat O'Brien, with his limited range, was a less than ideal choice for the leading role. Overall, however, you will not find many pictures of its type that equal this one.

While this film has undeniable drawbacks, chief among them a typical 30s Hollywood attitude toward Chinese folks (although, to be fair, it does take a couple potshots at white prejudice toward Asians), a way too theatrical performance by Josephine Hutchinson and an ending that is, to put it at its kindliest, less than convincing, like most movies directed by Mervin Le Roy it is fast paced, rarely boring and ultimately worth one's time.

Plus it has, to my mind at least, a rather important theme, namely the price that is exacted by allowing one's identity to be subsumed by one's occupation. And playing the subsumee Pat O'Brien, usually one of Hollywood's less compelling actors, turns in one of his best performances, alternately bitter, triumphant, vulnerable and loyal in his attitude toward the rather devious Atlas Oil Co. And therein lies another reason I enjoyed this film. As a previous reviewer stated it bucks the trend in Tinseltown, from "Wildcat" to "Giant", of glorifying Big Business, particularly when that business involves petroleum. Indeed the criticism of corporate malfeasance in the film is so sharp that it lingers in the mind long after that ludicrous ending where the icy corporate heart is melted by a wife's plea. As if. Give it a B minus.

An earnest fellow struggles in the Orient for years as the employee of a huge corporation, trying to provide OIL FOR THE LAMPS OF CHINA. Never faltering in his devotion, even at the expense of family & friends, he is repeatedly mistreated or ignored by The Company...

This intriguing film, based on the best-selling novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart, shows the eternal struggle between the Cog & the Wheel, the little man and the giant corporation. In this case, The Company is the epitome of every heartless bureaucracy, commercial or political, which controls the lives of its workers, demands unswerving obedience, and offers very little in return.

The cast all do very well in their roles: Pat O'Brien, constantly called on to choose between The Company and his family; Josephine Hutchinson as his wife, who must become a tower of strength while blaming The Company for the death of her son; Lyle Talbot, John Eldredge, Henry O'Neill, William B. Davidson & George Meeker, as various Company functionaries & executives, who move through their lives for good or ill; and Jean Muir, as a young Company wife driven near to desperation.

Christian Rub as an old doctor & Keye Luke as a young Communist officer both standout in key roles. Willie Fung, who appeared uncredited numerous times in tiny bit parts during Hollywood's Golden Age, here receives proper recognition in what was probably his finest performance, that of O'Brien's servant.

Special nods should go to Arthur Byron & dour Donald Crisp, wonderful in small roles as bosses who make the ultimate sacrifice for The Company.

Warners didn't stint on producing fine atmospherics for this film. The Chinese scenes are especially well mounted.

Pat O'Brien is dedicated to his job at the power company. He's trying to get ahead and get a name for himself and a little recognition. At a work seminar, the speaker says select workers are being sent to China to learn from them, to think like them, to be as efficient as them – to learn their work ethic. He is transferred but is told that the company frowns upon married men in China as the wives can't take the time alone there, as much is demanded on each man by the company. But Pat was engaged. He was, until he received a wire, saying she backed out from coming to a strange land. But he had to get someone to save face. Enter Josephine Hutchinson was traveling with her father, a lover and teacher of the Orient, who passed away while traveling. Their conversations lead to them being married and an understanding was made between them. What I consider a poor man's "The Good Earth," "Oil for the Lamps of China" is a story of two people finding themselves and understanding each other's roles in the world. I love the title, as it feels very old and yet very resourceful and inventive. Based on a novel, this was a captivating story of American people thrust in the Chinese world. Through their ups and downs, trials and tribulations, he is trying to ahead in the company, doing and dying for them, while she is trying to be a strong and devoted wife to her man. Josephine Hutchinson was a good actress who has virtually been forgotten, but a lot of that is due to the fact she was not cast as the female lead very often. This was probably her biggest and best role in Hollywood ever. She was also seen in Lana Turner's "Cass Timberlane" and Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" in a very small role. If you ever get a chance to see "Oil for the Lamps of China," a very rare, intelligent and engrossing film, please watch it and enjoy films the way they were years ago and were meant to be – entertaining while informative of a country, people, of a way of life, of a way to live, of a new perspective.